CEC CHAIRMAN BRUSHES OFF KEY PARTS OF U.S.

C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 001438 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/16/2017 TAGS: PGOV EAID PREL PHUM KDEM AM SUBJECT: CEC CHAIRMAN BRUSHES OFF KEY PARTS OF U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE Classified By: CDA Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: CDA, accompanied by AIDoff and Polchief, called on Central Election Commission Chairman Garegin Azaryan in a bid to persuade Azaryan not to refuse key elements of USAID implementer IFES' election assistance program. Azaryan was stubborn, smug, and unmoved. He suggested, speciously, that such problems as there had been during the May election, with vote tabulation and reporting, can be blamed on poor IFES training. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) Azaryan had earlier sent a letter to IFES staff, which he then followed up with a scathingly insulting in-person tirade against two of IFES' top local staff, in which he informed IFES that its help in conducting pollworker training would not be necessary. The CEC had chosen instead to produce, with OSCE help, a training video to show the election workers. That, he insisted, would be sufficient. ¶3. (C) CDA reinforced IFES' earlier concerns that the training video -- though a fine product -- had not been designed as a complete stand-alone training program, but simply as one component of what was envisioned to be a larger program. Meanwhile, Azaryan's plan to conduct the video-based training in much-larger groups (filling auditoriums, as opposed to IFES' approach to train small groups of about 25 at a time),would make the training far less interactive, and would offer much less chance for the election workers to ask questions of trainers, and for trainers to present possible election-day scenarios. Azaryan dismissed this concern, saying his method would ensure standardization and enable CEC commissioners or professional staff to attend each and every training session to verify that material was conveyed accurately. He said he did not have staff resources to send someone to hundreds of small-group sessions. Azaryan said that the CEC would not help IFES to conduct its training, but IFES might be able to work through the various political parties that would nominate the election workers if it felt that to be useful. Alternatively, Azaryan would provide the list of some 50,000 persons who were certified as pollworkers, and IFES was free to try to train them all. ¶4. (C) Azaryan also complained that IFES' proposed training manual seemed unnecessary and redundant, as he had an existing manual provided by OSCE before the parliamentary election, which could simply be updated with minimal effort. We reminded that the two manuals were quite different in their approach, organization, and content, with the OSCE effort more of a technical reference work on law and regulation, while the IFES manual was intended more as a simple and user-friendly, step by step guide on what the pollworkers should do at each stage. Azaryan was again dismissive, but did not refuse outright to cooperate on this. ¶5. (C) COMMENT: Azaryan's attitude is rather puzzling; past cooperation has had its frictions, but he has been willing to resolve differences when pressed. It may be simply a matter of Azaryan's pique against the IFES chief of party, whom Azaryan believes crossed him during an August special election in Talin district. IFES own staff believe that the problem is corruption, saying that the CEC's legal department chief has tried to demand a 100 Euro payment for the service of reviewing IFES texts for technical accuracy, which IFES has refused to pay. It may be that the CEC is feeling its oats after getting high marks for the parliamentary election, and the petty and prideful Azaryan is now disinclined to defer to international experts. Whatever is behind it, post and IFES are agreed that we should not attempt to conduct any pollworker training without the explicit blessing and support of the CEC. Failing a change of heart from the CEC, we are preparing to cancel that part of the program. END COMMENT. PENNINGTON